Saturday will be a special day for Tom Jurich.
By the time all the heads get counted at the Louisville-Kentucky football game in the expanded Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, attendance could be between 55,000 and 57,000, eclipsing the old attendance record by at least 10,000-plus fans.
To be sure, Jurich had the original expansion vision at a time when Bobby Petrino had the Louisville program among the nation’s top 10 football teams twice in three seasons. The future was bright at the time. His confidence enabled him to sell the idea to the administration. His credibility with the movers and shakers made it possible to raise more than $70 million.
There would be couple of bumps in the road, however. The hiring of a football coach unable to build on Bobby Petrino’s momentum and an inept Kentucky Legislature procrastinating a year before approving the expansion would not deter him. Though attendance fell sharply in the last three years and the program slipped, Jurich has never second-guessed his decision to expand the stadium.
“I never looked back once,” he said. “I didn’t build it for this year or next year, I built it for the next 50 years.”
What fans will enjoy Saturday is a state of the art stadium, complete with all the bells and whistles.
Jurich has been deeply involved, micromanaging every aspect of the planning, from the new video scoreboards and the streaming electronic advertising ribbons to the plush new stadium lounges and the shrubbery in the north end zone. Every day there’s a new banner, additional touches, including a new tunnel for the players. Who know what else he will unveil at game time.
This is his baby, and he should enjoy a victory cigar Saturday, smoking ban or no smoking ban.
There is very little debate on the tremendous impact the Jurich has had in taking Louisville athletics to new heights. His vision and execution of that vision was necessary to ensure that Louisville has the ability to be a major player on the national scene. He deserves much credit. In grading his overall tenure ,though, I would have to give him an incomplete. Louisville is currently in a strange situation where the level of the football and basketball programs currently do not match the facilites that they play in. I believe that Jurich made one big mistake. That mistake was buying into his own hype. Short term success in football, basketball and baseball gave him the reputation of the man with the golden touch. His short sighted hire of an unqualified coach proved that he had no more innate ability in choosing a coach than any other AD. We will be able to calculate the benefits that Louisville will gain from the new facilities. For that Jurich deserves much credit. We will never be able to calculate the cost of the lost opportunity of the last three years. For that Jurich deserves the blame. I believe that the future looks bright. But it will be some time before I can proclaim “In TJ we trust”.
I agree, he’s far from being infallible. But he deserves all the credit we can send his way for making the expanded stadium a reality. Not to mention the new arena. While Jim Host deserves the lion’s share for the arena, Tom had to be involved up to his elbows as well.
Well put, Charlie! I kept telling myself and others all through the Kragthorpe debacle:
In Jurich I Trust!
I think what we’ll see on Saturday in the bricks and mortar as well as in the organic matter on the field will prove that our patience and trust was well deserved!